Big League Stew

End of the world sale! Normal CornBelters make tickets available before doomsday

As the winter meetings reach their final day and the New York Yankees continue getting beat to the punch on potential free-agent targets, one can't help but wonder if the Mayans were correct in predicting Dec. 21, 2012 as the day the world will cease to exist.

OK, well, maybe you haven't made that correlation in your mind, but just on the outside chance the Mayan calendar's perceived doom and gloom prediction does in fact come true in a little less than three weeks, there's one minor-league team that is going out of their way to make sure their fans would go out happy.

That team is the Normal CornBelters — who belong to the independent Frontier League and play their home games at the aptly named Corn Crib in Normal, Ill. — and their plan is as follows.

In case the world ends on Dec. 21st, the CornBelters have put individual game tickets on sale to the general public for a limited time!

That's right, it's the baseball version of an "end of the world" sale, and it's brought to you straight out of Normal, because where else would you expect this to happen?

To dig a little deeper, here's an excerpt from the team's press release issued on Monday that explains the "doomsday" ticket plan further, and paints the masterminds behind it in a, well, at least slightly closer to normal light. Thankfully.

The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, have put individual game tickets on sale to the general public for a limited time! They are not necessarily convinced but, just in case the world does comes to an end on Friday, December 21 (as the Mayan calendar predicts), they want their fans to go out with the finest tickets in hand. Best case scenario… they make fantastic holiday gifts!

"We don't really believe in superstitions or curses, but when we heard about the impending 'apocalypse' predicted by the Mayan calendar, we felt we had to do something BIG for our fans ahead of time!" said CornBelters Vice President of Ticket Sales Joe Rejc. "Hopefully it's Y2K all over again, but you never know..."

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(Normal Cornbelters)

No, I suppose we don't know that, but I certainly applaud what we firmly believe is a first in sports marketing (and perhaps last), and is without question among the most creative (and unusual) minor-league ticket plans we've ever seen. Yes, that does cover a lot of ground.

To purchase one of these sure-to-be hot-selling tickets that will be available for all 51 home games and a lone exhibition game to be played on May 9, head over to the Cornbelters official website. But don't fret too much if you miss out on this opportunity. Assuming the world carries on into 2013, you'll have another chance to purchase tickets beginning on March 30.